Kali Malone (born 1994) is an American composer and organist based in Stockholm. Her works implement unique tuning systems in minimalist form for analog and digital synthesis often combined with acoustic instrumentation.
Early life Malone was raised in Denver, Colorado. She moved to Western Massachusetts to study music, but relocated to Stockholm in 2012 after befriending the Swedish avant-garde composer Ellen Arkbro. She studied electroacoustic composition at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm.
Career In 2016 she co-founded the record label and concert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm.
In 2019, she released The Sacrificial Code, featuring nearly two hours of pipe organ compositions, through iDEAL Recordings. The album appeared on year-end lists by Pitchfork and The Wire, and was awarded "2019 Album of the Year" by Boomkat.
In 2022, she released Living Torch, a 33-minute piece presented in two movements. It was commissioned by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) for its loudspeaker orchestra, the Acousmonium. Jettisoning Malone's signature pipe organ, it features a mélange of acoustic and electronic instruments including the trombone and bass clarinet. It was composed by Malone in 11-odd limit just intonation. The trombone and bass clarinet were recorded in meticulous individual parts to match each computer-generated sound wave. It was assembled by Malone with heavily textured drones as well as the boîte à bourdon and sounds generated by the ARP 2500 synthesizer owned by Éliane Radigue. Malone composed and produced the album at the GRM in Paris between 2020 and 2021. It is the first collaboration between the GRM and its new label partner Shelter Press, continuing the Portraits GRM record series founded by Peter Rehberg of Editions Mego. The album premiered at the GRM in October 2021, three months after Rehberg's death, and was released by Portraits GRM on July 7, 2022.
In 2023, she released Does Spring Hide Its Joy, a collaboration with Sunn O))) guitarist Stephen O'Malley and British cellist Lucy Railton. It was composed and recorded between March and May 2020 in the empty concert halls of Berlin Funkhaus and Monom during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Malone plays tuned sine wave oscillators on the album, joined by O'Malley's electric guitar and Railton's cello. The album consists of an hour-long composition presented in three versions, each a minor variation on the titular piece. It was released through O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label on January 20, 2023.
On May 14, 2023, deeming Malone's music "profanatory", activists from the French integralist movement Civitas forced the cancellation of one of her and O'Malley's concerts at the Saint-Cornély church in Carnac, Brittany, after they blocked the entrance of the church.
Personal life Malone is married to Sunn O))) guitarist Stephen O'Malley, which they announced on Instagram in July 2023.
Discography Studio albums Title Details Velocity of Sleep Released: August 25, 2017 Label: XKatedral, Bleak Environment Cast of Mind Released: May 8, 2018 Label: Hallow Ground The Sacrificial Code Released: June 27, 2019 Label: iDEAL Recordings Living Torch Released: July 7, 2022 Label: Portraits GRM Does Spring Hide Its Joy Released: January 20, 2023 Label: Ideologic Organ All Life Long Released: February 9, 2024 Label: Ideologic Organ Magnetism Released: November 9, 2025 Label: Ideologic Organ Music for Intersecting Planes Released: March 27, 2026 Label: Ideologic Organ Burning Song Released: October 30, 2026 Label: Ideologic Organ
Compilation albums Title Details XKatedral Volume III Released: October 6, 2017 Label: XKatedral Studies for Organ (Rehearsal Demo Tape) Released: May 1, 2020 Label: Self-released
EPs Title Details Tragic Chorus Released: March 12, 2016 Label: XKatedral, Bleak Environment Black Gate Released: December 21, 2016 Label: Total Black Organ Dirges 2016–2017 Released: March 15, 2018 Label: Ascetic House The Torrid Eye Released: January 23, 2019 Label: Stilla Ton
Other With Morbida Title Details Morbida / Medicine Bow Released: November 2014 Label: Oma333
With Taxi Taxi Title Details Floating Forever Released: December 3, 2014 Label: Delicious Demon Records
With Hästköttskandalen Title Details Spacegirls Released: February 16, 2015 Label: Fylkingen Records
With Swap Babies Title Details Bloody from Digging Released: June 4, 2015 Label: XKatedral, Delicious Demon Records
With Sorrowing Christ Title Details Sorrowing Christ Released: August 31, 2016 Label: Ascetic House
With Golden Offence Orchestra Title Details Ode to Pauline Oliveros Released: August 23, 2017 Label: XKatedral
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